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Boris weighs in with his own odd ode in tribute to athletes

July 23 2012, 1:01am, The Times

Boris Johnson: keen to have an ode for London 2012STEFAN ROUSSEAU/AFP/Getty Images

The last time the International Olympic Committee gathered to hear Boris Johnson speak was at a party in Beijing where he declared that ping-pong was “invented on the dining tables of England” and should be called whiff-whaff.

If they hoped that their meeting with the Mayor of London four years later would be any less eccentric, they reckoned without Mr Johnson’s passion for Ancient Greek poetry.

The mayor will treat dignitaries from around the world to a specially commissioned ode in the style of Pindar, the most esteemed and impenetrable poet of the ancient civilisation, who wrote 44 victory odes for athletes who triumphed at the Ancient Olympics.

Mr Johnson will declaim the 24-line ode in praise of the London Games, which begins: “Behold this…